So today I learned the term is "Library Assistant" but that doesn't have the same ring for the blog title. Drats. When I learn how to edit the blog title I shall try to remedy this error.
I am not going to review the quote reference from my last post as my first book review, it seems. That reference is to the series ElfQuest and I just don't believe I have the time to dedicate to something that was so influential to me growing up. So instead I'm going to link a list I found: NPR's Top 100 YA novels.
NPR's Top 100 YA Novels
Give it a gander and then bear with me as I touch on just a few of them. (You will soon learn I make huge blog posts. Blogger needs the LiveJournal option of hiding things beneath cut links.)
I'm hardly surprised that two breakout hits from the last decade and change have dominated the list. Harry Potter impacted me heavily, and I still reread the books (and write fanfiction and cosplay the characters and wow that series is apparently huge in my life), and while I'm not the biggest fan, The Hunger Games did a great job hooking more new readers. If you liked the series - and don't mind something just a little darker - a similar novel, Battle Royale, was the reason I read this series in the first place.
I'm pleased that so many classics managed to retain footholds in this list - especially The Giver Series (11th). Giver is easily the most influential book in my life, and since I had to read it in the third grade, I've read this novel once a year, and its sequels, Gathering Blue and Messenger every few years. I eagerly await the fourth book in the series, Son, and strongly encourage anyone who has read Giver to give the other books in the series a read. They aren't as strong an impact, but still exceptional. A little further down, at 17th, I had a laugh at The Princess Bride. The movie was one of my first favorites, and the book is witty and has the same irreverent style as the film.
Then I skim a lot of the list, because I haven't quite gotten a taste for authors Stephanie Meyer or Cassandra Clare or similar novelists, and some of them dominate the teens to thirties in the list. I fully appreciate their impact, and know enough about their books to recommend them, but I have much more on my plate.
I am more than a little surprised at the few literary fiction novels (that is, bookstore speak for grownup fiction) that made their way onto the list, most notably My Sister's Keeper (43rd). It has been on my to-read list for a while, and the fact that it has so many YA fans has only solidified this want. The same holds true for number 50, The Song of the Lioness Series.
And I've been at this for a while so I want to leave off with just three selections from the final fifty on the list. Many people who knew The Last Unicorn animated movie growing up don't realize that it was based on a beautiful novel by Peter S. Beagle (73rd). I've had the pleasure of meeting this wonderful man, and he's as great a person as he is an author. The book explores so much more than the movie, and it's a great insight on humanity. The graphic novel is equally beautiful. At 84 I found a surprise - that other people knew of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I grew up on this series, centering on a princess who doesn't want to be a normal princess, but does something most tomboys in fiction don't - she is strong and independent without being a male character in a female body. Leviathan squeaked in at 92. The novel is one of the first YA novels to introduce steampunk to the YA room, a tread I'd love to see continue.
I wish I had a fun picture to tie into this large wall of text. But I don't tonight. What books from the Top 100 are you happy or unhappy to see up there? What should have made the cut? I'd love to have more to add to my list of books to read (and by that I mean to add to the many bookshelves of books to read I own).
I'd be interested to know how NPR is defining "young adult literature" here. In college, I was taught that YA lit as we know it began with S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders (which made the list!), but I've also heard Salinger's Catcher in the Rye as the first true YA novel. I'm more inclined to believe The Outsiders, since Catcher in the Rye was written with a more adult audience in mind; however, there are books on this list written way before either The Outsiders or Catcher in the Rye.
ReplyDeleteMy next guess would be that they would choose books that star young adult protagonists, but that doesn't seem to be the case, either. Some of these books star adults, and some others star animals. No one's denying that Jack London's Call of the Wild is a classic, but I've never thought of classifying it as YA lit.
I guess my next step is to read that link that explains how they chose the books that made the cut! :)
Now I want to go back to school just to write a thesis on this. Darnit!
DeleteIt's odd, too, how publishers might decide what a book's audience is. I'm still surprised to find My Sister's Keeper on the list. It's always been classified, as far as I know, as literary fiction. It has a young adult protagonist, but it's still "grownup fiction." It definitely doesn't seem very cut and dry.
It doesn't seem too cut and dry here at the library, either. There are books in the children's room that we put in YA back at Waldenbooks, and books in the teen room that we put in children's back at the store. I'm not sure anyone has completely pinned down the definition yet.
I did finally read that blog post -- and I found I agreed with one of the first commentors. The poster said that Ender's Game hadn't made the cut because it was too violent. I feel like Ender's Game is one of those quinessential coming-of-age novels a good portion of teenagers read, whether it's because they're force to in school or because they hear about it from a friend who was forced to read it. But too violent? While Hunger Games made the cut? I feel like the latter is much more violent than the former, especially because of how personal that violence is. A big part of the theme of violence in Ender's Game came from its distance - Ender didn't always realise just how his "pretend" violence affected others.
I think I need to write a blog just about that last paragraph. My train of thought is going on the Crazy Express.
I'm a teacher. I'm supposed to inspire people to want to go to college. :)
DeleteI find Hunger Games much more violent than Ender's Game! Strange. I'd say they probably made an exception for Hunger Games because it became such a phenomenon and compelled a lot of kids to read, even though it was very violent. I adore Hunger Games with all my heart, but...yeah, Ender's Game should have made the cut as well.
I've already been to college! I can't afford to go back yet. :P
DeleteI enjoyed Ender's Game much more than I did Hunger Games. I have no compelling urge to go back and reread Hunger Games, but I reread Ender's Game every few years. While both offer insights, I think Ender has more to offer than Katniss, but that might come down to narration style (I don't always trust Katniss and I feel like she probably misses a lot that's happening in the world around her) and the fact that Ender's Game is a bit of a thicker read.
I totally agree about the reading phenomenon, though. I appreciate that it's gotten reluctant readers to read, but my appreciation for that series goes little beyond that, simply because I've gotten the story already, in much more satisfying ways, from something like, say, Battle Royale. I think I liked the storyline in Catching Fire, even if I think Hunger Games was better written, because it was a bit more unique. I didn't like Mockingjay for the same reason I don't care for the novels beyond Ender's Game that I've tried - politics simply can't engage me for the most part.